Not much is known about HELLP, including its exact cause and diagnosis – and yet, every single year, approximately 50,000 women develop HELLP during their pregnancies in America alone.

No doctor predicted that I would be fully functional again – without any lingering sign of trauma or impediment. As my neurologist says, my “recovery was miraculous.”

To help save lives of other women and to help neurologists understand what it’s like for a patient to recover from traumatic brain injury, my neurologist suggested I write a book about my experience.

I began that book in 2006, almost six years after my son was born – which is about 3 years into my full recovery. It turns out, I wasn’t ready yet to talk about what happened and I distanced myself from the experience in almost every way a writer can:

I turned a true story into a fictional account.

I wrote it in third person (“she” rather than “I”).

And I wrote it from a man’s point of view – the husband in the story is watching his wife battle HELLP.

The chapters are fascinating to read because they reveal the truth about my experience in battling HELLP – but from an outside perspective. In that way, they do help spread knowledge about this largely unknown and untalked-of syndrome.

In fact, you’ll find details in here that you’ll recognize from A Labor of Love, which will make you feel like you already got the Inside Scoop!

But much more: you’ll read exactly what happened during those days I spent in the neuro-ICU — information I haven’t written about anywhere else!

So while I write the memoir with the guidance of doctors and experts, go ahead and dive into this!

Go to the link at the top of the page & download 6 entire chapters now!

Fiction Fans

I haven’t forgotten my roots!

I also have a novel-in-progress – and this time, I’m not writing it through brain damage!

Broken: Diary of a Muslim Woman is about a young woman named Nadia. She was born and raised in California into a Muslim family. By any account, she has a privileged life. Yet a tragic event unravels her.

Find out how this fully assimilated American girl turns to extremism.

Dive in & download the first 3 chapters now.

A Behind-the-Scenes Look

If you’ve ever wondered how novels are written, reading these two ebooks is an insightful glimpse into the process.

You’ll notice the names of the characters are the same in both ebooks – as are some of the details:

Nadia’s mother has passed away in a car accident. Nadia has cheated on her husband. Aydin is trying to forgive her.

Here’s how my current novel evolved:

I had a traumatic delivery experience.

I thought it was a good idea to write about it & took a stab.

I ended up writing a novel – and I mean an entire novel. 344 pages.

Then I shelved the book. Why? Because the story doesn’t work as a novel. It needs to be told as a real account.

Years later, I finally have the distance I need from the traumatic delivery experience to write about it as my experience.

I basically divide the one book into two: I take out everything that has to do with my delivery experience and set it aside. Although I won’t use the material in its current fictional form, I will certainly use the details (which are true) to help inform my memoir about HELLP.

The rest of the book, such as the characters and some of the plot, I salvage for a separate novel.

These characters, free from the story I imposed on them – my HELLP story – now reveal their own.